Movie: The PURSUIT of HAPPYNESS

In Interpersonal Communication class we watched a movie called “The PURSUIT of HAPPYNESS” yesterday. The movie depicts poverty in America and the man whose name is Christopher Gardner’s struggle for life. At first glance at the name of the movie, I wondered why the title written “HAPPYNESS” instead of “HAPPINESS”. After watching the whole thing I found it’s the misspelled name of the son’s daycare in the movie. It’s interesting!
I love the quotes which Christopher Gardner said in the movie. Here are the following quotes and my reflection:

Christopher Gardner: (to his son) Hey. Don’t ever let somebody tell you… You can’t do something. Not even me. All right?
Christopher Gardner: (to his son) You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can’t do it. You want something? Go get it. Period.
These two quotes inspired me a lot. I do not know exactly what I want to do in the future. But I got my dream and now I decide to keep that in my mind and pursuit it from now on. In literature class Chris told us that studying in English department not means earning high paying job but for the wealth in our mind was much important. At that moment, I couldn’t agree with him more. Yet, after I watched the movie, I started to wonder and worried about my future. I do not want to have the tough and miserable life like him since I am not sure if I have the courage and perseverance to keep going on like him did. Some people like to tease others by saying opposite words to make them feel depressed and make them lose their confidence. Therefore, I think ignoring their fleer and believing in ourselves and do what we want to achieve is fairly significance.
Christopher Gardner: (to himself when he encounter the toughest time in his life) It was right then that I started thinking about Thomas Jefferson on the Declaration of Independence and the part about out right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And I remember thinking how did he know to put the pursuit part in there? That maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue and maybe we can actually never have it. No matter what. How did he know that?
I think the quote has something to do with the title. He put “pursuit” on emphasis and actually when Thomas Jefferson enacted the declaration, he did not promise people they will have it. In my opinion it’s a pessimistic thought but in some situation it’s true. We cannot possibly own everything in our lives even we make great effort. Like “Matilda”, she couldn’t get her parents’ love therefore she gave up it and chose books instead. In the end, she received teacher’s love and her magic power and lived a happy life ever after. Therefore, I think every one can pursue their happiness and can get it as long as they content and cherish what they own now.
After thinking deeply of the movie, I have some critical comments.
Firstly, the movie shows race issue. For example, it was the rich white guy failed to pay the fare, but the taxi driver asked Christopher for the whole money. Secondly, isn’t it too facile that hard work lead to rewards? In my opinion, it’s happened only in the movie. Compared to true life nowadays, it’s too successful. Thirdly, the movie may chastise black men who abandon their children in an ironical way. In the movie, I am very impressed with the love between the father and the son, Christopher is a wonderful dad who works hard to raise his son. It’s a great model for all of us. In Taiwan there are many parents abandon and abuse their kids as well.
In a nutshell, using different perspectives to think about the movie can make me learn more than my expectation.